Watch your pace when sharing space

Coinciding with the United Nations Global Road Safety Week, and Australia’s Yellow Ribbon National Road Safety Week, CARRS-Q launched a Queensland-wide initiative “Watch your Pace when Sharing Space” on Friday 12 May 2017. We nominated Samford Village, a semi-rural town on the outskirts of Brisbane, for the launch due to its demonstrated interest in the need for safer roads over the years, and the mix of road users, both locals and visitors, particularly at peak times.

RACQ partnered with us for this event which provided the community with the opportunity to meet people involved in developing new traffic technology and to learn about safety initiatives to improve road user interaction. Practical demonstrations of child restraints and driveway runover avoidance by Kidsafe, kids’ play through RACQ’s virtual reality game and demonstrations by Queensland Ambulance Service, Queensland Police Service and Altus Traffic Control Services also featured, and Samford’s community bank showcased its young driver program. Guest speakers Mr Dennis Walsh, General Manager, Land Transport, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, Mark Furner MP, Councillor Matt Constance and Peter Frazer, President of Safer Australian Roads and Highways (SARAH) provided national and local perspectives.

Our campaign aims to educate people about the vulnerability of pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, young and older road users in collisions with cars at relatively low speeds, in the context of a shift in lifestyles towards urban areas where different road users are more likely to be sharing space, and where conflicts between vulnerable road users and vehicles will become more common.